Washingtonians

[nwmud]

COOP of DREAMS tour
Everett 2011

I will be organizing another coop of dreams tour this year - spring/summer 2011. If you got chicken and want to show them off in Everett, let me know. we are in the planning stages currently - last year we have a couple hundred people attend (at least). It felt like more at times.

Ritch
[email protected]

 

[TifsBroodyBabes]

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I'm up for it again this year if you'll have me......

 

[Chickielady]

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Interesting that is the area that I have been looking at.

Well go ahead and answer his questions, you ought to know enough about the area by now !!

 

[Chickielady]

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I am doing sweet meats, zuchinni, yellow paddy pans and pink banana squash.

 

[DuckLady]

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Hi! We are in Ione, just over the "hill" from Colville. It is gorgeous here and first hand from this gal who spent her first 37 years in El Cajon, I guarantee that you will probably spend your first winter whining under an electric blanket like I did.

But if you like seasons (that SD doesn't have) and nature and small town life you will like it here. The autumns are spectacular. The growing season is short but bountiful.

But do your research. Unless you are retired or have money to live on it can be hard finding a job just out of the starting gate. The economy is not great and the area is overall poor. But there is richness to be had in the people and the community spirit. I would say Stevens County is better off that way than Pend Oreille County. It is far in miles to get anywhere for work out of the area where you live, but about the same in time as you won't have to sit in rush hour traffic.

If you do visit the area, get hold of me and we can take you on a tour!

ETA Gary Grant knows this area well
http://www.newwaterfront.com/

He works with Century 21 in Colville
http://www.c21kellydavis.com/

 

[Chickielady]

Last year's garden, the very first garden.
Remember we got here in September 09, and I had to quick, insulate this barn, sheetrock as much as I could. build a chicken coop, fence and set up rabbit hutches while DH ran back to Ca for another and another load...so went from bare land to this::
and ALOT is to be different this year as I have much more time to concentrate on the green house and garden now that the coops are built and we have the roof over our head.

You can see inside the green house, boxes set up at 10 feet, and the two boxes that held beans last year will be rotated to grow something else this year to deter disease & pests.

One thing I have to do is bank the green house roof the other way entirely as that is the prevailing wind direction and hits the high side of the green house like a truck.

The boxes are hardwood, and still today show no signs of rot...if they do rot, I will go get some more boxes !
They are free.
I do think we will get 1 more box this year and set it apart from the rest of the garden fo trailing pumpkins and squash.
I have KNUCKLEHEAD pumpkins and JACK O LANTERN this year.
Lasy year we did Cinderell that were gorgeous dark orange and made great halloween decor.
At the foot of the bean boxes, you can see the zuchinni...this year I will do onions.

 

[Ogress]

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I fixed that ... at least some nights. Before the kids go to bed, we play a board game and read short stories (original works of Grimm) by candle light or a wind-up flashlight. DS is really good about finding every light that has been left on.

 

[Chickielady]

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cool ! I am not doing corn though, but I do 3 or 4 kinds of pole beans and climbing peas...think that will work ? We do not have open tilled feilds here, we have the 100 acre wood, thick forst and we in the center..so all the garden is in raised beds.
Oh, and spied my monster gopher is back in town !!!

I need a big gopher eating cat, that will not eat my chickens !

I have a pair of semi feral rat gofer eating tom cats that you can have. The boys are from the same litter and still seem to like each other. I would even bring them out to you.

Do they eat chickens ?
DH would be very excited if we had a big cat that ate the little chipmunks here.
I adore them, but he hates them !
They torment him, they run down his workbench and bark at him...and race across the ground and up a tree before he can pop a shot off at them.
DH's Dad in CA has walnuts and almonds...among other trees in the 10 acre orchard, and the ground squirrels drive him NUTS! (and the big venomius snakes that come to eat the GS are a worry to MOM)
So Dad parks on the porch with the 12g shotgun I gave him...and he gets a bead on a GS, and traces with it to get just a bit in front of the GS before he pulled the trigger (looking through the iron site here) and BAM! Blew the front tire right off his $X$ Ford pickup. Dad has been very hard on that truck...he rammed trees and blew the windshield in.. now he has assorted critters living in the truck, the manifold covered in walnut shells..I have to laugh.

 

[jbear]

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that's awesome! where do you get those boxes??

 

[SadieSue]

After making final tuition payments to WSU this morning for DD's freshman year, my husband and I took a look at what was left and determined that if I save some of my paycheck the next few months I can pay for my complete dream coop/pen. When I asked when he would start building he replied, "When you get the garage cleaned out". Most of it is my stuff anyway that I've been planning on letting go for awhile now. So it's a fair trade.

Ruminating again... I had planned on finding pullets/young hens so when coop is ready they can go right in, but after reading another thread this morning I started thinking about the dogs. We have a sweet 3 year old Golden Retriever who is typically very gentle with kittens (I foster for Humane Society), cats, other dogs, babies, etc., but loves chasing his toys in true retriever fashion. We also have an 11 year old Pomeranian mix who I'm not too worried about. He'll take on a 110 lb. Rottweiler but is usually afraid of his own shadow. Weird dog, but he's my husband's little boy.

So I was wondering if I'd be better off getting younger chicks to raise to teach the dogs that they are part of the pack and need our protection, or go ahead and start with pullets/hens?
They wouldn't ever be left unattended when hens are free ranging, but when the weather is nice I thought we'd all hang out together in the yard. Our dogs are VERY good about keeping rats, raccoons, etc. out of the yard. I heard big barking the other day and got out there just in time to see two raccoons climbing one of the tall firs as fast as they could! I thanked the dogs and brought them in for a cookie...

Opinions? Chicks or pullets? As long as I'm training the dogs anyway, does it make a difference?